


An Unexpected Calling

by afinch



Category: Everwood
Genre: Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:25:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11602488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/afinch
Summary: When he is ready, Ephram goes to find his son.





	An Unexpected Calling

**Author's Note:**

> Can we all agree that the Madison has a baby story line was contrived at best and utterly horrific at worst? This is an attempt at some closure.

The little boy playing on the front steps was unmistakably his son. Amy gripped Ephram's hand and he took a deep breath.

"Hey," he said to the kid.

"Hey," said the kid.

"Are your mom and dad home?" Ephram tried. 

The boy looked at him, with solemn eyes. "Are you coming to take me away?" 

Ephram didn't know what to say. He sputtered something that might have been a response.

The boy accepted it and scurried into the house, yelling "Mom, they're here!"

"Did you tell them we were coming?" Ephram hissed at Amy. She was gripping his hand so tightly he thought the circulation might be cut off. She didn't have to come. He had told her out of courtesy, especially because if he made some bid for custody, she would be involved, whether she wanted to be or not. She had surprised him by saying she'd come, and they'd get through it.

Amy only shook her head. She was swaying; Ephram reached across to place a hand on her shoulder. She took a few raspy breaths of her own. "I shouldn't have come, I should go, I need to sit," she murmured. 

"Almost," Ephram said as a woman wearing a kitchen apron stepped onto the porch, wiping her hands with a dishrag. It was perfectly suburban. Almost comical in how stereotypical it seemed. She had been smiling, but when she saw Ephram, her face clouded.

"John?" she called back into the house. "John, you need to come out here."

The little boy peeked out the door, "Mama, are they here for me?"

"Inside." The one word, in its firm tone, had the boy running back into the house, his bare feet slapping across hard floor until they faded from view. "Come," she said to them. "I'm Ellen. John will be a moment. You two need no introduction, but we'll have them anyway."

"Yes we will," boomed a voice from the doorway. A tall, portly man, whose beard was slowly turning grey, lumbered in the doorway. In a few years he'd look like a decent Santa Claus. He was clearly not the biological father of the little boy. They made their way to a small swing and a tete-a-tete. Amy nearly fell into the swing, and Ephram awkwardly squeezed in next to her. He placed a hand on her knee, reassuringly. 

"I have to pee," she whispered to him, but he ignored it. Now that they were here, he wasn't sure he wanted to do it at all. "I'm Ephram," he said, in a voice little more than a whisper. "Ephram Brown. This is Amy Abbott. We - we um, I'm-"

"Yes," said Ellen, her voice taut. "I suppose you are. When they said no father on the birth certificate, I knew, given _your_ circumstances, that you'd be back." She directed that last bit at Amy. She gave a glare to Amy, her face set firm. Like she was daring Amy to challenge her, to challenge her _motherhood_ in some way.

Amy sucked a deep breath. "No," she said carefully. "No, I'm not - I wasn't. Ephram is my husband, is all."

Ellen seemed to visibly relax at this; John placed a hand on her shoulder. "When did you find out?" he asked, gently at the same time Ellen wrung her hands and asked, "Do you want water? Tea? I can put on coffee?"

Both of them shook their heads and Ellen relaxed some more. She leaned into John's hand and he slid it down to mirror Ephram's. They were a matched mirror, both wives flushed and nervous, both husbands with firm hands, holding everyone together. "A little while ago," Ephram answered. "I just wasn't sure if I - I only had a little bit of information and didn't want to hire someone to -" He broke off, unsure of what he should be admitting now.

John nodded, and looked at him inscrutably. "And what is it you intend to do now, son?"

Ephram looked lost, "I don't know. I thought I would come and - and see, and - and I think I'd like to see him. Maybe not all the time, but … but-" He was faltering again. He looked at Amy, helpless.

"But what happened wasn't fair," Amy said, and she said it with grace and conviction. "He should have been able to make a choice for himself."

"Raising a kid is hard work," said John. "Harder than anything you'd imagine. Now if you want to file the fees and do the tests, there's nothing Ellen and I can do to stop you. But all Sam's known has been us. You might want to think about that before you go ripping a boy from -"

Ephram was shaking his head, "No, no, I don't want - I don't want to do that, that's not why I'm here." He slid his hand off Amy's knee and leaned forward, earnest. "Look, I'll take the tests to put you at ease, but Amy and I can't - not full time we can't - not with Amy -I just … I just want him to know who I am. I lost my mom -" He broke off and again looked at Amy.

"We don't want to tear a family apart," said Amy. "We just want to see him. A few days during the month and some holidays. So he can know his family. Ephram can take the DNA test to put you at ease, but we both know it's only going to confirm what's obvious."

John pulled his whole body back, and clasped his hands behind his head in shock. He opened his mouth to say something, but Ellen who had been silent, burst out with emotion, "He calls me mom! We wanted him, we wanted him so badly, and we thought we'd risk an unknown father, and you show up and I can _keep_ him?" It was too much for her; she tried to catch her breath but couldn't. Her sobs echoed across the porch.

"Hey," Ephram said, leaning across the chairs to place a hand on Ellen's knee. "I lost my mom. I'm not going to do that to someone else."

John spoke quietly above their heads to Amy, "I think we can work something out. Why don't you two give us a few hours and come around for dinner."

"I'll have to find the baby album," Ellen sniffled. 

This made Ephram remember something, and he furiously tore inside his jacket looking for it. "Here," he said after a moment. He handed Ellen a picture of himself on his first birthday, clutching a piece of blue cake tightly in both hands.

"Damn son," said John. "Spitting image, almost exactly."

Ellen's tears, nearly abated, sprung up again, and her body wracked with sobs. 

John put his hands on his wife's shoulders, rubbing them gently. "Come for dinner," he said softly, and Ephram nodded. He was glued to the spot until Amy gently pulled him up. 

"Yea, is she going to be okay?" Ephram was concerned. She was obviously a very nervous person and he wondered if _we'd risk an unknown father_ was code for _this is the only baby they'd let us have_. It wasn't as if he was going to do something with this information, and he hoped the look he gave John was enough to convey this.

John nodded, "She's been worried about this day since the day we brought Sammy home." He looked lost in that moment, and then shook himself out of it with a smile. "Go on, we'll be all freshened up for dinner."

Amy and Ephram walked down the steps together. Ephram couldn't help but turn back. There, in the doorway the whole time, was his son, staring wide-eyed.

Ephram couldn't think of anything to do, so he winked, and then turned back to Amy.

"Several hours 'til dinner," he said, trying his hardest to sound nonchalant. "What do you want to do?"

Amy rubbed her blossoming belly. "I think I need to sit again," she sighed. "And pee."


End file.
